1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to computerized methods and systems and more particularly to methods and systems for computerized valuation of electronic equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many organizations (e.g., schools, nonprofits, and businesses) may have a large amount of surplus electronic equipment (e.g., computers, servers, monitors, components therein) that the organizations would like to sell or trade-in when getting new electronic equipment.
Today, to sell or trade-in electronic equipment, organizations may call, e.g., an asset recovery company and offer to sell their electronic equipment. As an example, an organization may communicate a desire to sell 2000 GX280s and invite an asset recovery company to make an offer (GX280 being an exemplary model number of a specific computer). The selling organization may contact multiple asset recovery companies. Alternatively, electronic equipment may be put on a list that may be reviewed by multiple asset recovery companies or other purchasers. For example, a school (through a list) may communicate that it has 2000 GX280s to put on the market. An asset recovery organization may make an offer on the 2000 GX280s.
This approach has many drawbacks. The reality is that neither the selling organization nor the purchasing asset recovery company knows exactly what they are getting as part of the transaction, for example, the GX280s. The selling organization may send the list of electronic equipment out to the asset recovery companies and the purchasing asset recovery company may review the listing and make an offer based on their resell history with the electronic equipment. This approach may be a shot in the dark, because neither party knows what is inside or installed on the electronic equipment. Accordingly, the selling organization and the asset recovery may make a deal believing the electronic equipment to be one thing but later finding out differently. For example, the asset recovery company may agree on a price for the GX280s only to find out, after the electronic equipment is paid for and picked up and returned to the asset recovery facility, that while each piece of electronic equipment is a GX280 externally, each has been upgraded with the addition of a gigabyte of random access memory, an extra hard-drive, and an upgraded video card. The reality is that the computer they paid $40 for is actually worth $60. There was no way for the asset recovery company or the selling organization to capture such data unless one or the other party to the transaction physically walks to, turns on, and inspects every piece of electronic equipment and creates a listing of exactly what is inside the electronic equipment. Logistically this may not happen due to the man-hours involved. Many companies may take the approach of listing what they think they have and requesting an offer based on that belief. The selling organization then sells the electronic equipment for whatever the offer from the asset recovery company is. The following scenario occurs often: an asset recovery company purchases bulk electronic equipment and when the electronic equipment arrives and is actually evaluated, the asset recovery company discovers the electronic equipment just purchased had extra components or software or upgrades making it worth, as an example, $30,000 above the estimated value used as the purchase price. The purchase may have been an auction bid, the asset recovery company bid and won the electronic equipment. In this instance, the asset recovery company did well financially in the transaction relative to the selling organization. There may also be times where a purchaser gets less than what the purchaser expected.
Additionally, there is often software (e.g., Microsoft Windows, Office) that may be included with the electronic equipment but that may not be calculated in the resell value, because it may not be realized that the software may be resold. This may represent a huge secondary market for reselling software or applications that currently remains at least partially un-captured.
In light of the above deficiencies, improved methods and systems are presented.